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CBS hires new chief to boost Couric news
2007-03-08
The hiring of television veteran Rick Kaplan to run the "CBS Evening News" is a sign that the network wants to replace experimentation with a program its viewers can count on every day when they switch on Katie Couric. CBS News President Sean McManus on Thursday hired Kaplan, whose lengthy resume includes six years as a "CBS Evening News" producer under Walter Cronkite, as the show's new executive producer. He starts Monday, replacing Rome Hartman. Couric began as anchor last September with the bold promise of trying to shake up a staid genre, but ratings indicated many viewers felt shaken down. After winning the Nielsen races Couric's first two weeks, CBS has slipped to a distant third behind ABC and NBC. Viewership during last month's pivotal ratings "sweeps" period, used to determine advertising rates, was down 6 percent from the Bob Schieffer-anchored newscast in February 2006. "I'm not sure that we are consistent enough so that every single night you know what you are going to get from the `CBS Evening News,'" McManus said. It's the second change at the top for an evening newscast in a week. With ABC's "World News" with Charles Gibson eclipsing NBC's "Nightly News" in a sweeps month for the first time in six years, NBC brought in Alexandra Wallace to replace John Reiss as executive producer. McManus invited Kaplan to lunch last week to discuss the broadcast and, after getting Couric's assent, nailed down the deal in the last two days. The evening news now is already markedly different from when Couric started. Back then, CBS tried a segment with outside commentary. It proved a bland failure largely due to the use of commentaries and opinions easily found elsewhere. Couric's skill as an interviewer was showcased but, with the exception of her talk with Michael J. Fox after he was criticized by Rush Limbaugh, few were memorable and many ran too long. These segments have been sharply cut back. Critics internal and external also found too much of a reliance on prepared segments instead of the day's news. In some ways, the post-Oscars newscast symbolized what was happening too often. Couric had an innovative lead to the broadcast, packaging the $45 billion TXU buyout and Al Gore's Academy Award into a story about the increased acceptance of environmentalism. But the broadcast never mentioned Vice President's Cheney's trip to Pakistan -- which led the news on ABC and NBC. McManus is hoping for more emphasis on the news of the day, as well as a sharper focus on the features. An example he cited was Wednesday's story about an injured veteran who committed suicide, something topical in light of the scandal over shoddy treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. CBS underestimated the audience's desire for a more traditional network newscast every evening, he said. "I think we pushed the envelope a little bit," he said. He dismissed questions about whether Couric, the longtime "Today" co-anchor, was suited to the evening newscast. Couric, he said, "is very good at this and will be even better." There is a segment of the population uncomfortable with a woman in that role, but it's something CBS can't do anything about, McManus said. "It has been a distraction for everyone to worry about a lot of the external elements, be they clothes or hair or appearance," he said. "She's had to worry about a lot of things that other anchors never had to worry about. It would be nice for everyone to be able to just concentrate on the job she is doing." Some who have watched her broadcast closely have wondered whether it has suffered from having too many people offering opinions with no clear sense of who's in charge. "If it was a problem," McManus said, "it certainly won't be one in the future." A large man with a booming voice, Kaplan is one of the few behind-the-scenes TV executives with a profile to rival those on the air. He was most recently MSNBC president, leaving last summer, and ran CNN's domestic operations in the late 1990s. During a long career, he was in charge of "Nightline, created "Primetime Live" and was at the helm of "World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings when it topped the ratings. He's won 34 Emmys. He's also acquired enemies; his feud with Lou Dobbs led to the anchor briefly leaving CNN. There were reports of shouting matches with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. And conservatives are suspicious of Kaplan's friendship with Bill Clinton. Kaplan said Hartman's willingness to experiment was useful in telling him what does and doesn't work on the broadcast. He's not telegraphing changes, but said he hopes viewers can expect a strong focus on the day's news. The job appealed to him because he wants to spend the rest of his career in a control room producing broadcasts. "It's a network I love and an anchor I have great respect for and a broadcast that I love dearly," Kaplan said. "It was a no-brainer." ___ CBS News is owned by CBS Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric Co. ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.
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